Gender Socialization Among Children Essay

Gender Socialization Among Children Essay

2508 WordsSep 2nd, 200811 Pages

In our society, there are norms of what is considered to be feminine and what is to be considered masculine, but how are these norms constructed? Through the use of toys, books, and clothing, children are socialized into their “appropriate” gender. These objects provide influence over behavior and appearance, showing boys and girls what is appropriate for each gender. After some investigation it was found that the toys, books, and clothing that children use not only foster the norms of gender behavior and appearance, but also construct gender roles in their young minds. Toys play a major role in socializing young kinds into “appropriate” gender roles. The first obvious characteristic that separates toys for boys and toys for girls,…show more content…

Little girls are socialized to believe that physical appearance is of great importance.
Toys also influenced children with gender roles. In our society, the typical expectations of men is to financial support the family, and for females it’s to cook, clean, and take care of the children. “Both wives and husbands tend to perceive this as a “fair” arrangement” (Zimmerman 30). To instill this idea in young minds, there are toys that influence these gender roles. Boys have toy tool sets, promoting hands on work. Girls on the other hand have cooking and cleaning toys such as the Easy Bake Oven or toy vacuums. Also “parents tend to encourage more gender-typed activities. One study found that household tasks differ along gender lines. American boys are more likely to mow the lawn, shovel snow, take our the garbage, and do the yard work, whereas girls tended to clean the house, wash dishes, cook, and baby-sit the younger children” (Newman 133). Girls also like to play “house” fostering wife and motherly qualities such as taking care of the family. These toys help with socialization making children believe and understand that these are the norms of our society. So in conclusion to toys, “Sex-specific toys foster different traits and skills in children and thereby serve to further segregate the two sexes into different patterns of social development. “Boys’ toys” encourage invention, exploration,

As children are raised, they learn about their society and their place in it, which includes suitable behaviors which correspond with their gender identities. The socialization approach to gender differences among children views gender identification and behavior as being based on children’s learning that they will be rewarded for behaviors which are considered appropriate for their sex, but not for those behaviors appropriate to the other sex. (Cherlin 2009) In this essay, I will argue my partner…

Early gender socialization is perhaps one of the most relevant issues and debates of early childhood. The beginnings of stereotypes for gender roles are typically established at birth, and continue a process of learning specific cultural roles and standards in accordance with the sex of the individual. Gendered interactions begin early in the family and hence influence the process of gendered socialization, as was such the case for myself growing up.
Socialization comes from a number of sources:…

Title: Gender roles amongst children and adults
According to the global times in China, “Experts say children are able to read gender cues and start adopting "gender appropriate" behaviors from the age of two or three”. As a child, we are often told how to act, what to like, and how to dress. Through time, we start to figure out who we are. The history on gender roles go as far back as the ancient times. They helped shape the way we compare today’s time versus the older times. Although the roles…

Children’s Programming; Stereotypical gender roles and the potential impact on children’s gender identity socialization.
‘Media corporations, with a commanding role over commodity markets have become the primary educational and cultural force in shaping, if not hijacking, how youth define their interests, values and relations to others’. (Giroux 2011) My argument throughout this essay will be that children’s programs have a significant impact and influencing effect on shaping and forming a child’s…

Abstract
Gender role expectations are inescapable in our society as we naturally tend to sort humans into categories, the easiest one being gender. Upon first meeting a person, most people automatically classify the other’s gender. With this classification come the inevitable gender role expectations. Even for those who consciously try their hardest not to cloud their perceptions of others based on “traditional” gender role expectations, it is almost impossible not to subconsciously succumb to these…

Socialization theories propose that children gain gender differences at young ages by socializing with peers, parents, teachers, siblings, and any other immediate family. These gender differences can range from preferring certain colors over others, playing with certain toys, and anything that could potentially be labeled as male or female (sports, games, careers, etc.). Gender differences can be harmful if children decide to push against them but they can also have no effect. It greatly depends…

Professor Lessor
5/14/2016
Gender role in socialization
Gender socialization and gender roles have always existed in society. Gender roles are playing major part in our way of living. As we grow, we learn how to behave and respect from those surrounding us as well as children learn at a young age what it means to be a boy or a girl in our society . there are certain roles placed on boys and girls in accordance with their gender. These gender roles are set on children from birth and are taught…

Women Studies 9 online
Oct 8, 2015
Gender Socialization
Gender, according to Lorber, is the product of a range of social forces that
influence our gender construction through a system of reward and punishment.
throughout my life, I have been taught to "be a women" by family and through society,
all that at some point supported the goals I had for myself or created obstacles by
challenging my own ideas of what meant to be a strong women. Gender socialization is
the process by which individuals…

Taking the opportunity to observe preschoolers in a childcare setting will help identify whether gender differences occur among preschool children. More specifically, observing children in their natural environment will help determine whether or not boys play differently than girls. On October 7th, at the Child Development Lab’s playground while the children were having playtime at 11 o’clock in the morning, I had the chance to observe thirteen boys and sixteen girls aged 3-4 years old. After observing…

Society has this unknown expectation for genders to have a type of distinction toward one another, attitudes and behaviors that males and females are required to have. Gender socialization is society’s way to categorize the propensity for males and females to be socialized differently. Media, violence, even politics has a large contribution to the division among genders in the 21st century creating by creating a new culture of independents. Media has been promoted very selectively and carefully,…